Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

”President Chen, can you even make money at this price?”

Lei Yijun snapped back to his senses. He turned his head, fire in his eyes, and questioned Chen Yansen.

”The hardware doesn’t make much, so I plan to profit from the software. Isn’t that what Xiaomi and 360 Mobile Phone do?”

Chen Yansen gave a feigned, shy smile, speaking nonchalantly.

The screen, chip, and memory used in the Qingcheng D1S were actually of pretty average quality. The specs looked luxurious, but the bill of materials for each unit was just over five hundred yuan. Non-essential sensors like the gyroscope and magnetometer were cut completely.

The batteries were supplied by Desai and the screens by Jingdongfang. Leveraging his status as both a shareholder and a major client, Chen Yansen was able to secure the lowest prices.

As for MediaTek’s MT6573 processor, Orange Technology’s willingness to purchase it was a show of respect to MediaTek.

Currently, very few domestic phone manufacturers were still willing to use MediaTek chips.

It was either Qualcomm, NVIDIA, or Mountain Star. MediaTek chips were the backup to the backup, typically found in low-end and ultra-low-end smartphone models.

’It’ll be tough for 360 Mobile Phone to sell 600,000 units a month now,’ Zhou Hongyi thought, swallowing hard. He was already pondering a new model; he had to avoid Orange Mobile Phone’s price range.

Ding Lei frowned, but his brow quickly smoothed out again.

NetEase’s phone had slightly better hardware specs than the Qingcheng D1S. Plus, as an internet phone, it was originally a business built on its ’fan’ base. Sales would definitely take a hit, but not a huge one.

The representatives from companies like Lenovo, ZTE, and Coolpad had the ugliest expressions. With the release of the Qingcheng D1S, their mid-range models would likely be dead in the water.

The Orange D1 blocked their low-end models, while the Orange C2 and Orange C3 blocked their high-end ones. Further up, the 4,000+ yuan price bracket was entirely the domain of Apple, Mountain Star, and HTC.

’Fuck! If you’ve got the balls, sell it for 4,999 yuan and go fight Apple!’

Chen Yongming, who had enjoyed a pleasant chat with Chen Yansen at the previous Xiaomi conference, now had a dark expression on his face and couldn’t help but curse inwardly.

After hearing Chen Yansen’s explanation, Lei Yijun opened his mouth but didn’t know what to say.

For a moment, the expressions on the faces of the representatives from the major phone manufacturers were incredibly complex.

Only one thought remained in their minds: ’Price cuts!’

’We’ll go back, develop a thousand-yuan phone, and teach Chen Yansen a harsh lesson!’

’In a battle of supply chains, production lines, and cost control, how could they, the industry giants, possibly lose to Orange Technology?’

’It’s just a matter of whether we want to do it or not!’

Wang Teng stood on stage, taking in the expressions of everyone in the audience. He then smiled faintly and said, ”Next, I’ll introduce the R&D team behind the Moss voice interaction engine. Let’s give them a round of applause!”

The competitors were still lost in their pleasant fantasy of ’develop a thousand-yuan phone → sell five million units at launch → crush the Qingcheng D1S → Orange Technology begs for mercy.’ They paid no attention to Wang Teng’s words.

The media and fan sections responded promptly, erupting in thunderous applause.

It wasn’t so much to show respect for Wang Teng; rather, the 999 yuan price point had earned everyone’s respect.

Daniel and Zhou Chuangxi walked onto the stage together. Wang Teng smoothly moved to the side, ceding the stage to the two of them.

”Hello everyone, I’m Zhou Chuangxi, Chief Scientist at Orange Technology’s Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.”

”Hello everyone, I’m Daniel Povey, Chief Scientist at Orange Technology’s Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.”

Daniel’s Chinese proficiency had improved by leaps and bounds. While he couldn’t yet communicate without difficulty, a simple self-introduction was child’s play for him.

The audience didn’t look too surprised when they saw Daniel, as they had already seen the R&D team from Orange Technology’s Artificial Intelligence Laboratory in the promotional video just moments before.

Half of them were foreign employees!

Daniel began to speak slowly, sharing his academic and research experiences, with Zhou Chuangxi providing real-time translation.

IBM Research Institute, Senior Engineer in computer voice recognition.

Microsoft Research Institute, creator of the Hidden Markov statistical model, developer of the Kaldi speech recognition toolkit.

Johns Hopkins University, Associate Professor at the Center for Language and Speech Processing.

’This guy is a goddamn legend in the field of artificial intelligence!’

It was only then that the media and fans realized that the middle-aged, bespectacled man on stage, who seemed a bit socially awkward, actually had such an incredible background.

”Is that for real?”

”He’s not an actor they hired from Hengdian, is he?”

”If you search online, you can actually find news about Daniel Povey. The man is a real, top-tier AI expert.”

The reporters and fans were chattering in small groups. After confirming Daniel’s identity and academic achievements, they grew excited.

The reporters were thrilled; they had found another hot news story.

The fans, on the other hand, felt that the influence of the Moss voice interaction engine and the Moss Smart Speaker had been seriously underestimated.

As Daniel reached his final sentence, he looked at Chen Yansen with a serious expression and said, ”Since coming to China, my technical skills have grown rapidly, mainly due to the influence of my boss. His abilities in speech recognition, natural language processing, and speech synthesis far surpass my own. In my heart, he is my mentor and my godfather.”

Zhou Chuangxi was momentarily stunned. He subconsciously glanced at Daniel, his eyes asking, ’That’s a bit too flattering. Should I translate it?’

Seeing Zhou Chuangxi remain silent, Daniel pursed his lips, urging him on.

Zhou Chuangxi ignored him and turned his gaze to the big boss.

Chen Yansen gave an almost imperceptible shake of his head, signaling to Zhou Chuangxi not to translate that last part.

After receiving the instruction, Zhou Chuangxi took the microphone from Daniel and began discussing the development of speech analysis and recognition tools, moving on to the difficulties of natural language processing and speech synthesis technologies.

At the same time, he briefly introduced his own background.

A young computer prodigy from Huake University, a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from UIUC, proficient in computer vision, image processing, and speech recognition technologies, and a student of the ’Father of Computer Vision’ from the Lighthouse Country.

The audience listened, dumbfounded. And most of the two hundred-plus people in Orange Technology’s Artificial Intelligence Laboratory possessed similarly outstanding talents.

This was an ultra-luxurious team composed of the world’s top artificial intelligence experts. No wonder the Alexa Smart Speaker, priced at 199 US Dollars, could achieve terrifying sales of two million units in the European and American Markets.

Chen Yansen’s marketing strategy was cut from the same cloth as the tactics used by brands like Good Memory Star, 8848 phones, and Xiao Guan Cha.

Xiao Guan Cha brought together eight tea masters, while the Moss (Alexa) Smart Speaker brought together over two hundred AI experts.

Is 799 yuan expensive?

This is the fruit of the labor of AI experts!

The method was cliché, but the effect was powerful.

Before the press conference was even over, columnists from platforms like Huxiu, iHeima, Toutiao, Sohu, Penguin, and NetEase were already publishing lavish, detailed articles with text and images about Orange Technology’s Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and the Moss Smart Speaker.

”AI Legend Daniel Povey and Orange Technology: The World’s First Smart Speaker!”

”Top Lighthouse Country Scientist Daniel Povey: ’Chen Yansen is my mentor, my godfather!’”

”Raking in 400 Million US Dollars Overseas, the Alexa Smart Speaker Shouldn’t Be Ignored!”

Netizens flocked to leave comments. Some users who had purchased the Moss Smart Speaker commented: ”The performance of the Moss Smart Speaker doesn’t match its price. It deserves to be sold for more!”

”Why buy a speaker? Just buy the Orange C3!”

”Orange Mobile Phones are getting more and more expensive. The next new model will probably be over 3,000 yuan!”

”I guess you’re just ignoring the existence of the Orange C1, Orange D1, and Qingcheng D1S?”

”Hurry to the official Orange Mall website! The sales links for the Orange C3 and Qingcheng D1S are up!”

At 4:00 PM, both the official Orange Technology Weibo account and Chen Yansen’s Weibo account reposted the new product launch poster for the Orange Mobile Phone.

The comment sections were instantly flooded with curious netizens.

As for the report about Daniel Povey seeing Chen Yansen as his godfather, it wasn’t long before netizens dismissed it as fake news.

Everyone knew Chen Yansen was a liberal arts major—journalism, no less. How could his skill in artificial intelligence possibly surpass that of a top AI expert from Europe and America? Impossible!

「Elsewhere.」

After the press conference ended, Chen Yansen saw Ma Wenteng, Yu Chendong, Lei Yijun, and the others off to their cars before letting out a breath with a light chuckle.

”Boss, it’s still early. I can go home and make you some brown sugar fermented rice noodles and sweet tofu pudding with tapioca balls. Would you...” Ye Qiuping walked over and asked.

Before she could finish her sentence, Chen Yansen cut her off, ”I don’t like sweet soups.”

Ye Qiuping froze at his words. Her elegant brows furrowed, and she couldn’t help but curse inwardly: ’Then who was the dog who drank two bowls this morning?!’

Then, Chen Yansen got into the back seat of the Rolls-Royce Ghost and told Xiaoli to return to the Science and Technology Park.

Regarding the acquisition of Nuomi Network, he still needed to communicate with Pei Yi and Gao Weilin to confirm the timeline and pace, and to draft the handover procedures and plan in advance.

Nuomi Network’s organizational structure was rigid, its decision-making inefficient, its ground promotion team small with weak coverage, and its total employee count was only around 1,000—the smallest among the front-line Group Buy websites.

Pei Yi needed to overhaul and restructure the organization and its ground promotion model to unleash its full potential.

Chen Yansen’s idea was to abolish the agent system in third- and fourth-tier cities, transition completely to a self-operated model, and build a three-tiered ground promotion structure of ’Regional Director - Area Manager - City Manager’ to increase cohesion.

He knew the true colors of those agents all too well.

Extorting and demanding kickbacks from local merchants was just standard practice; some even fabricated non-existent merchants to sign contracts and exploit platform promotions to pocket subsidies.

The less daring ones made a few hundred thousand a year; the bolder ones made several million.

It wasn’t hard to imagine how much of the over 3 million US Dollars Chen Yizhou was losing each month was being siphoned off by the agents and the heads of various major regions working together.

Half an hour later, Chen Yansen returned to the Science and Technology Park. He first called Gao Weilin over, then started an online video conference with Pei Yi and Kang Guodong to discuss the Nuomi Network acquisition.

「At the same time.」

After receiving the notice from the big boss, Shen Boyang immediately began preparing the relevant financial and business data for Senlian Capital’s personnel to review.

”President Shen, is the company really being sold?” his assistant asked curiously.

”Yes, the buyer is Senlian Capital. Don’t let anything go wrong during this time. Tell the people under you to be sharp.”

Shen Boyang said with a grim face, his tone serious.

He wanted to use this opportunity to join Senlian Capital and get a new boss for himself.

Compared to Chen Yansen, Chen Yizhou was worlds apart. People strive to better themselves, and Shen Boyang also wanted to take another step up.

”Understood, President Shen.” The assistant nodded, pushed the door open, and left to carry out Shen Boyang’s instructions.

An hour later, news that the company was about to be sold had spread throughout the Nuomi Network headquarters.

”Sigh, it would have been great if Qian Du had acquired us. At least they’re one of the BAT companies.”

”So what if they’re BAT? When Qian Du bought Lashou Network, they didn’t adjust employee benefits. If you ask me, Senlian Capital is more reliable.”

”Brother Dong is right! Senlian Capital treats all its subsidiaries’ employees, including those from acquired companies, equally. Base salary, overtime pay, quarterly bonuses, housing subsidies—they max out all the benefits!”

”Damn, for real?”

”What do you mean, ’for real’?! If you don’t believe it, then quit!”

”You think I’m stupid?!”

A clamor of discussion erupted in the office.

In the corner, Zhang Xuhao gave a bitter smile. After all this time, he had still ended up as one of Chen Yansen’s employees, destined to make a living under Pei Yi.

Just then, his phone rang. The caller ID showed a familiar number.

Zhang Xuhao sighed and pressed the answer button. ”Wang Yuan, it looks like we’re going to be colleagues again...”